Microsoft reportedly building 7-inch Xbox Surface tablet

According to reports, Microsoft is moving forward with an Xbox Surface tablet. The 7-inch device will place a firm focus on gaming with a custom-built processor and modified version Windows OS. We're likely to see the tablet before we see an actual new Xbox.

According to a report from The Verge, Microsoft is entering into the hardware business with a 7-inch gaming tablet. We’ve known for a while that Microsoft has had interest in building hardware for devices running its new Windows 8 operating system, but this tablet project appears to be an entirely new beast — though it’s been rumored since June.

The sources used in the report states the 7-inch gaming focused tablet would run on a modified version of Windows, similar to the Windows RT tablets, and would include “a custom ARM processor and high-bandwidth RAM.” While gaming will be the focus of this device, it may not be its explicit purpose as some other tablet functionality may remain in place. 

It’s interesting to note the Xbox 720 is rumored to be built on Windows, likely a custom kernel of the operating system. This is the same way the Xbox Surface tablet is said to operate. The report from the Verge also made mention of the fact that the Xbox Surface tablet is being developed in Microsoft’s Silicon Valley offices and the company recently locked down Xbox-related buildings on its campus. This news means we could see an Xbox tablet before we see a new console from Microsoft.

Microsoft has yet to comment on the speculation, but all signs are pointing to an Xbox Surface offering from the Redmond based company. After some rough reviews on the first Surface, it makes sense that Microsoft might go back into its stable and come out with another offering branded with its powerhouse product. The Xbox brand is only eleven years old but is one of the most notable names in gaming. The mobile market has proven itself as a true embracer of games and entertainment, so slapping a well-recognized name in those fields onto a tablet seems like a no-brainer for marketing. If the Xbox 720 is truly being built on Windows and Microsoft is working on some sort of OS integration between its tablet and its gaming system, the Xbox Surface may become a must-have accessory for console gamers who remain loyal to Microsoft.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How to Attract More Comments for Your Blog Post

There are some very cool ways to attract more comments for your blog. It takes some time to bring things into focus when you first start a blog. It doesn’t always attract the type of attention that you want it to have. It ordinarily takes a little bit of strategy to get people to pay attention to what you have to say. This often involves making your blogs appear interesting, creating the kind of content that is engaging, captivating and appealing

Sometimes people start blogs and they make a lot of statements. Many of them may be mundane day-to-day living type of statements. The reality is that most people, even if they read this, will not bother to comment on it. That is why bloggers have to spice things up. They have to be interesting enough to intrigue the reader. Sometimes this takes a bold statement to draw some interaction from your readers. Another way to attract more comments is to have some great information that just can’t be found elsewhere. People are going to come back to the site and time and time again if the information is good. Some people really appreciate a blog that has accurate information that is hard to come by. People that discover this in your blog will at least take the time to say thank you if nothing else.

Sometimes a blog is something that stirs people up. The statements that are made are not always things that people agree with. These are usually the blogs that get lots of comments. A political blog, for example, will always stimulate conversation because there will always be opposing points of view. It doesn’t matter what you stand is on any law or governing act. If you blog about it someone will decide to disagree with you. This actually makes lot of people very verbal.

Even with all these things in tact it is still very important to have some current information on your blog. People are not going to comment on the same on posts over and over again. This is what lots of people fail to realize about blogging. So many people start up a blog and abandon it. They may check on it from time to time, but they stop blogging altogether. This makes it close to impossible to have a decent blog. People that make comments are usually interested in current events. It’s going to be hard to get people to even read blogs with outdated information. They definitely aren’t going to comment on these blog posts.

People make comments on blogs when they have something to say. This is the bottom line. This means that your job, as a blogger, is to give readers something to say. Give them a reason to comment on what you are bringing forth. Let the people that find your blog take an interest because you are saying interesting things. Don’t just assume that anything you post is golden. Make sure that your blog has spice that attracts readers and intrigues them to respond with comments.

Tags: Blog Commenting, Blog Post Commenting

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

A starter guide to the world Dishonored: Navigating the mean streets of Dunwall

A guide to help you get the hang of how to navigate Dunwall's sandbox in Arkane Studios' Dishonored.

Dishonored is a sandbox. Don’t let the level-driven narrative focus fool you. Once Corvo Attano is handed a mission and unleashed in the dirty, plague-ridden streets of Dunwall, the methods you use to complete that task are entirely your own to decide. This level of freedom can be daunting though. That’s why I want to take some time today to run through some of the less clearly defined game systems and offer some tips for making the most of your time in Dunwall. 

Save Early, Save Often

The old PC game adage “save early, save often” should be your mantra while playing Dishonored, especially if you are attempting a non-lethal and/or ghost run through a mission. Get into the mindset of manually saving your game whenever you overcome a particularly challenging obstacle. There are checkpoint locations that autosave for you, but they are relatively few and far between. Dishonored is the rare game that allows you to save anywhere, at virtually any time, and there’s a reason for that. ‘Take advantage.

Don’t Fear the Reaper

Most video games are built around the idea of having you learn as you proceed. Come to a nasty boss fight and you might die a few times, but each new attempt brings added knowledge of patterns to watch for and weaknesses to exploit. Dishonored doesn’t feature any boss fights, but it rewards trial-and-error play. Don’t be afraid to run out into the open — after saving, of course — and seeing what sort of trouble you stir up. You might be intentionally dooming yourself, but you also might catch sight of an access point that you hadn’t noticed before.

Also be sure to take advantage of the no-strings-attached tutorial mission that amounts to Corvo’s escape from prison. Achievement/Trophy hunters take special note here: most of the game-spanning goals do not apply during this mission. Take advantage of that to experiment. Learn how Dishonored’s stealth system works. Get the hang of blocking and countering in open combat situations. You can do this anywhere in the game, of course, but the first mission is there specifically to train you… so take advantage.

The Path of Which Resistance

Once you’ve got a handle on how Dishonored works mechanically, it’s worth spending some time figuring out how you want to play it. Will you ghost your way through the game, quietly avenging the Empress’s murder from the shadows? Would you prefer a more merciful path, never once allowing your blade to taste the enemy’s blood? Or will you stalk the streets of the city openly and brazenly, meting out justice as an unstoppable angel of death that strikes fear into the hearts of one and all?

Whether you sneak quietly or go loud, your choices have repercussions as the game unfolds. The attention that you draw to yourself and the death — or lack thereof — that you leave in your wake contributes to the city’s overall Chaos level. This determines what sort of resistance that you’ll be facing with each new task handed to you. At the end of each mission, you will be given your chaos ranking, but it is about more than just killing, there are certain objectives you can do if you want to raise it that may not be clear. For example, in one mission you are given a non-lethal way to take down a key figure.  You could always just kill the target, but for the best chaos boost, complete the non-lethal method, then as others are coming for him, kill him as others look on. Watch the shocked guards then proceed to freak out.  

In broad terms, the city becomes increasingly hostile as your Chaos level rises. Conversations with your allies and those overheard will reflect that, and the story is slightly modified to match. Leave too many bodies and alerted guards behind you, and you can expect to encounter a heavier enemy presence during future assignments. Not just town guards either. Your handiwork also quickens the spread of the plague, since there’s more rotting meat for the rats to feast on and less guards to enforce the quarantines. This means that you can expect to deal with additional rat swarms and Weepers as well when you have a high Chaos rating.

Of course, maybe that’s the challenge you’re looking for. There’s nothing inherently bad about having a high Chaos rating, especially if you’re going lethal and loud all the way. The endgame reflects this, and the final mission will play out much differently. The story’s conclusion won’t be quite as happy if you choose to bloody your blade too frequently, but the only real “penalty” for a high Chaos rating is stiffer resistance.

Blink Or You’ll Miss It

If you are into achievements/trophies and have seen a list of all the available rewards, you may have noticed that there is one for completing the game without unlocking any of Corvo’s supernatural abilities. Thankfully, Blink is excluded from that, and for good reason. You’re forced to unlock it, sure, but the game is also virtually unplayable without it. Blink allows you to move a short distance (its range can be upgraded) in any direction without anyone noticing, and it’s hard to overvalue Blink’s usefulness.

You can use it to slip past guards in an open space where they might otherwise catch you. Or locate hard-to-reach access points. Or zip around the battlefield to flank behind an enemy before he realizes what’s going on. If you are falling to your death, you can even use it to teleport closer to the ground and drop without taking damage, and if you Blink to within a step of an enemy, you can instantly take out that guard from behind. It is, by far the most flexible ability in Corvo’s toolbox. Use it, abuse it, learn it, love it.

Vengeance Can Wait

Take your time in each mission. Dishonored might be a level-based game, but you’re not ever following a linear set of corridors from point A to point B. There’s a lot of ground to cover in Dunwall, with an assortment of nooks and crannies hiding all of the best gear. Take the time to find them.

The first thing that you should do whenever a new chunk of map loads is pull out your Heart. You receive this item early on in the game, and it points out the location of each Rune (used for upgrading you skills) and Bone Charm (offers passive bonuses) on any given map. Use it when you arrive in a new location to get a sense of what’s out there. It is also worth equipping it and using it like an ability now and then. If you do it while pointing at a guard, it will tell you things about them. Doing so when facing a key target will give you a more complete picture of life in Dunwall, and the role they play. If you use the heart without a target in sight, it will tell you a bit about the area you are currently in.  

Make finding the Runes a priority before proceeding with your mission. Not only will you gather useful items, you’ll also inevitably find other goodies hidden away as well — things like gear, upgrade blueprints, valuable collectibles, and cash-money. Quest-givers too. Keep an eye out for secondary tasks during each mission. Often you’ll find that helping someone else unlocks additional access points or offers non-lethal options for neutralizing your primary targets. There are even instances where helping a character at one point will open up other missions later on, while ignoring them, or even killing them will close that thread for good.  

Blink is essential for exploration. In planning out your skill upgrades, it’s best to prioritize Blink and then at least level one of Agility — which more than doubles your jump height — to aid in your Dunwall wanderings. The first level of Possession helps too, since ratholes sometimes provide access to areas that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. If you intend to remain non-lethal, the Dark Vision and Bend Time abilities are handy as well; if you choose to take the bloody path, offensive abilities like Devouring Swarm and Blood Thirsty should be your focus.  

Victory Through Experimentation

The city of Dunwall is extremely well designed with regards to offering multiple approaches to most situations, but it’s Corvo’s toolbox of skills and gear that really allow you to embrace Dishonored‘s sandbox. Be sure to read the “tips” section for each skill, but it’s equally important to simply mess around and see what works. There’s not an in-game reward for engineering creative kills, but there’s a personal sense of triumph that comes from exploiting the tools laid before you in unexpected ways.

Did you know, for example, that you can rig a rat with a springrazor trap? Try doing that, then using Possession on the rat and walking it right into the middle of a group of enemies. Use Bend Time at the right moment and you can snatch projectiles and grenades right out of the air, adding them to your stock or directing them right back to their sender. Want to get really cute? Use Bend Time to stop a bullet in midair then possess the person that fired it and walk him in front of his own shot.

The possibilities are endless, especially since you can use thrown objects or fired crossbow bolts to direct an enemy’s attention in one direction or another. Why distract someone when you can instead draw them over to a location where you’ve set a trap or used a rewire tool to turn a piece of machinery into your own agent of death? You’ve got that save anywhere feature, so take advantage of it and experiment to see what sort of inventive tactics you can engineer.

For more on Dishonored, check out our roundup that includes interviews, videos, and our full review here.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Why Ford needs to get its electric plan out of neutral and into drive

Ford stepped into the EV ring with its all-electric Ford Focus and while it has been met with praise, there is still much work to be done.

Back in May, I had the pleasure of driving the Ford Focus Electric around the city of Portland, Oregon. It was a fun, albeit brief, drive that left me surprisingly impressed by Ford’s first all-electric vehicle. Not only did it tout some truly impressive efficiency numbers (105 MPGe and an official range of 76 miles on a single charge), but it also managed to handle well and accelerate with a vigor not found in your standard gasoline-engine car.

But all is not well in EV land. Despite its early success with the Focus EV, Ford still refuses to throw sufficient resources behind its electric vehicles, and will continue to lag behind the competition until it does.

Unlike electric competitors like Mitsubishi and Nissan, Ford has refused to build a dedicated EV platform. Instead, Ford has made it clear it wishes to tackle this segment with a multi-faceted approach, offering different levels of entry to suit the needs of consumers.

For instance, on top of eco-boosted models — which feature smaller, more efficient, turbocharged engines — Ford will also introduce hybrid versions of many of its upcoming vehicles. This year alone marks the arrival of the Focus EV and the C-Max Energi, while the 2013 Ford Fusion Energi will begin cropping up in dealerships early next year.

Choices are good, but so is clear-cut game plan. And Ford doesn’t have a real one when it comes to electrics.

Despite the growing green hue emanating from Ford’s PR department, it’s largely business as usual behind the scenes. For instance, the company recently announced it was opening a new “Electrification Center of Excellence” down the street from its Dearborn, Michigan headquarters. But as with the Focus EV, this “new” center is more of a refresh than an original creation. It’s housed in Ford’s old 285,000-square foot research and development lab, previously known as the Advanced Engineering Center.

Okay, so a little reshuffling is fine, smart even. But how much money will Ford actually dedicate to EVs? It has hired some 60 engineers to help populate its refocused facility, bringing the total tally of its investment to $135 million. At first glance this seems like a fair chunk of change, but considering that General Motors has spent almost $750 million on the Chevrolet Volt, it still seems Ford is content with dipping its toes in the pool, rather than just jumping in.

Using existing platforms might make sense from an accounting perspective. After all — researching, designing, and developing an entirely new vehicle from scratch is always going to cost a pretty penny. However, there are some drawbacks to merely repurposing existing vehicles with EV components.

Slapping an electric drivetrain might seem like a good idea, but unless a car is optimized with the right aerodynamics, structure, weight, and other design factors, you’ve already sacrificed some efficiency right off the bat. Electric vehicles also have to accommodate a rather large and heavy battery, so it’s important for the initial design layout to take that into account. The Ford Focus, in all its incognito EV glory, hasn’t really been optimized for any of these factors. Cars like the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi iMev might look quirky, but they look that way for a reason, not to simply stand out at a red light or make some lofty political statement. It’s the same reason why you wouldn’t slap a Ferrari engine inside a Camry; you’ll lose a vast amount of what makes a car like that so special.

From a cost perspective, Ford might be saving money up front, but it will end up spending more money in the long term, since small quantity conversions always cost more than a large-volume production line. Using the same platform as the standard Focus gives Ford a cheap start with the Focus EV, but the battery cost piles on an excruciating $12,000 to $15,000 per car – a cost that would be lower in greater volume.

People are often quick to criticize companies like Nissan, Tesla, and even Fisker, but the fact that these automakers are out there trying to innovate shouldn’t be met with derision. Of course these companies could be doing more to lessen the criticism; Fisker has more problems than Jay-Z, Nissan isn’t hitting its sales target, and Tesla can’t seem build the Model S fast enough.

Don’t think Ford is the only company skirting around the EV question. Equal scorn belongs at the feet of Honda, which has built an excellent all-electric vehicle in the Fit EV, but like Ford, refused to commit to a true EV platform. Automakers like Mazda, Volkswagen, Subaru, and even Toyota aren’t doing enough nurture the EV market either. Other than Nissan and Mitsubishi, no other major automaker has a dedicated, high-volume pure EV (remember the Volt has an engine) out now or coming soon.

Ford’s strategy is an admirable one, and it’s clear the goal is to elevate its fuel-efficiency cache to traditional mileage kings such as Honda, Toyota, and the like. For that, we have nothing but praise. But to stay up to speed with electrification, Ford could do more, including developing a true all-electric vehicle platform and diverting more resources overall to its future EV projects. The goal here is to innovate, not stagnate. The company has the resources and ability to operate on the cutting edge, but right now it just seems content with keeping pace.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook rolling out search history controls… which begs the question, why do we need them?

Facebook announces you now have new control over your Facebook searches, which strongly suggests a strong focus on search is in the network's future.

In what seems like the Nth feature release this weekend, Facebook has announced an update to its Activity Log. The Activity Log, if you remember, was introduced last year, giving users a way to see a concrete list of their Facebook actions and give us increased control over their visibility.

Now, Facebook is also including the ability to view and remove search history on the site as we see fit. “You’ll be able to see the searches you’re making on Facebook. Just as you can choose to delete any of your posts, you can use the same inline control on Activity Log to remove any of your searches at any time,” Facebook explains, via press release. “It’s important to remember that no one else can see your Activity Log, including your search activity.”

Before the update (which hasn’t been entirely rolled out just yet but will be over the next few weeks), the Activity Log would give data like posts you’d commented on, photos you’d posted, things you’d liked – but anything entered into the search bar wasn’t visible. Now, along with a list of those actions, you’ll see what (or, more likely, who) you searched for, and have the ability to delete it.

Right now, no one can see his or her own or other users’ Facebook searches. It’s all entirely private, or at least hidden from our eyes. When you search for your high school best friend, there’s no record (at least not user-facing) of that search – which is why this new tool feels like a preemptive measure. Why would Facebook give us a product that essentially gives us a high degree of control over a list of searches and how visible they are unless we needed it? What this change indicates should be pretty clear: Facebook will be saving your search history and also giving you edit capabilities. I reached out to Facebook for comment but had not heard back as of press time. 

Facebook has landed itself in hot water before by introducing features that make our every social-network related move more shareable and more detectable. Usually, the cycle goes as follows: Facebook introduces feature, backlash occurs, Facebook scales back said feature with privacy in mind. For instance, Sponsored Stories weren’t opt out to begin with… and then suddenly, one lawsuit later, they were.

It stands to reason that Facebook is introducing the new feature in advance of something more to come – CEO Mark Zuckerberg did recently allude to the network’s search ambitions. “It’s one of the kind of obvious things that would be interesting for us to do in the future,” he has said. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com